Quote:
Originally Posted by Makarov
Several posters keep saying "crime" and "terrorism", but I don't feel like anyone has really articulated why Khadr's violence was morally different than the violence of the US soldiers that day (apart from the uniform/state-actor distinctions that I've already mentioned)?
Just to be clear: I spent two months travelling in Afghanistana a
couple of years after the fall of the Taliban. It's one of the most beautiful, most hospitable and welcoming countries in the world. I firmly believe that it's people (and its history and culture) were terrorized by the Taliban. I support the Western intervention to usurp the Taliban regime. Generally speaking, when there was a battle between ISAF soldiers and Taliban-friendly militants, I cheered for the ISAF soldiers.
However, I see the Taliban-friendly militants as enemy combatants, not criminals. And I think that enemy combatants, despite being enemies, should still be entitled to basic human rights (because, as history has shown, they don't need to be our enemies forever). War is ugly and terrible. But, morally, Apart from ideological preference, I don't really see a difference between Khadr throwing a grenade and a US soldier throwing a grenade.
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It is definitely a moral conundrum. Had he walked up to a group of soldiers on the street, while dressed as a civilian and tossed a grenade into them I can totally see the idea of him being an illegal combatant.
However this situation raises the grey area. While the militants did shoot first, it wasn't until they were told by that the Americans were coming in whether they liked it or not. At this point it became clearly combat in my eyes. They called in an airstrike, strafed with an A-10 and dropped a 500 lbs bomb on the compound. Clearly the Americans saw them as combatants and acted on it.
I especially don't see a difference between throwing a grenade after being wrecked by an A-10. If the commies came knocking I don't think you could find one American who would call themselves a murderer for firing back, "well displayed insignia" or not.